Fishbourne Pre-School

An outdoor kitchen, fruit trees and access to Fishbourne Playing Fields give this pre-school a recognisable character. Children can choose between the main indoor space, a garden room and an enclosed garden, with opportunities to grow plants, ride bikes and make their own games. Outdoor play is part of the ordinary day here.

Fishbourne Pre-School has 26 places in total and occupies a purpose-built building at 48 Blackboy Lane, Fishbourne, Chichester. At its 28 January 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received well-matched help, including language games in small groups. That is a dated judgement, rather than a description of today's staffing or children.

The current offer combines child-chosen play, planned activities and a key-person relationship, with individual learning journals connecting home and pre-school. Attendance is term-time only, with morning, afternoon and full-time patterns. The parent-based management committee also gives families a direct role in how the setting is run.

Rooms and Ages

The main pre-school room is complemented by the garden room, which provides space for group work and more concentrated activities. These are shared learning spaces rather than a published sequence of age-banded rooms. Children move between the indoor spaces and garden during the day, so choosing an activity need not mean staying in one room.

Before Reception, the emphasis is on independence as well as play: children select activities, handle their belongings and practise everyday tasks. The admissions policy sets a maximum of 26 children in a session, a whole-setting limit rather than a figure for either room. Its differing starting-age statements need resolving before a family plans an early start.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. Here, that means learning through play, observing each child's development and planning manageable next steps around their interests. Development Matters is used as guidance when the key person begins assembling a child's learning journey; it sits alongside the framework rather than replacing it.

Practical materials give that approach substance. Children can mix paint, work with playdough, tackle puzzles and build with construction toys. Drawing and early writing are accessible through chalks, notebooks and whiteboards. These choices let a child return to an interest while adults also introduce planned activities.

Group time brings conversation, stories, singing and instruments into the day. Makaton, the sign language used here to support communication, features through a sign of the week that children learn together. It gives the whole group a shared way to communicate, rather than reserving signs for children receiving extra support.

In January 2022, children used name cards when attempting to write their names and adopted emergency-service roles in imaginative play. Staff also used ribbon threading for hand control and a card game for turn-taking. Those examples show the practical activities behind the inspection's account, but belong to that visit.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden offers a mud kitchen, a balance beam, bikes and large construction materials. Planting includes vegetables, herbs and flowers, with fruit trees in the nature area. Children therefore have opportunities for movement, making things and tending plants within the same outdoor space.

Access matters as much as equipment. Ramps connect the building and garden, and a permanently covered area supports outdoor play in different weather. The garden combines hard and softer surfaces; children also explore the adjacent playing fields beyond the enclosed area.

Local outings are adapted to children's needs, and an annual summer trip includes parents. Community fundraising also includes a stall at the Fishbourne School & Church Fete, alongside raffles and cake or ice-cream sales during the year. Fundraising income goes back into the pre-school, supporting equipment and its ongoing running costs.

Relationships and Communication

A key person is allocated from a child's first day. Settling gives that adult time to learn about the child and establish a relationship with the family before building the learning journal. This makes information from home part of planning, rather than leaving parents to receive progress updates after decisions have already been made.

The journal takes scrapbook form, with observations documenting development and families encouraged to contribute photographs and interests. Informal conversations about the child's session provide another route for communication. For parents, these are complementary channels: everyday exchanges cover immediate matters, while the journal brings learning together over time.

Staff include Early Years Educators with Level 3 and Level 5 qualifications and undertake continuing training. The key-person structure is supported by inclusion and special educational needs coordinator roles. Families can also join the elected parent-based committee, whose work includes evening meetings six times a year and an Annual General Meeting.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Support is organised through individual plans, achievable next steps and one-page profiles, developed with parents and relevant professionals. With parental permission, an Early Years Advisor can advise on strategies. Speech and Language Therapists are among the professionals the setting works with when needed, connecting support in the pre-school with specialist advice.

The purpose-built building has wide doorways, an accessible toilet and adaptable tables. Activities can be moved to table or floor level, while visual timetables, specialist equipment and communication aids can support participation in outings. These are concrete arrangements for adapting the day to a child's needs; they do not promise that every need can be met in the same way.

Behaviour support uses explanation, redirection and individual adult help. For recurring difficulties, staff work with parents and use observations to understand possible causes. The policy rules out physical punishment and separates a child's behaviour from their identity, giving families a clear basis for understanding how difficulties should be handled.

Children practise cutting snack food and pouring drinks, and adults help with toothbrushing after lunch. Families provide the packed lunch; snacks and breakfast are among the items covered by the optional contribution on funded hours. These routines bring self-care into the day alongside learning and play.

Transition support includes meetings with the next school or setting and, where practical, a staff-supported visit with the child and family. Liaison with local primary schools helps prepare the move, with information shared around the child's particular needs.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, across 38 term-time weeks. Morning sessions run from 9am to noon; the September 2026 fee schedule sets the afternoon session at 1pm to 3pm. An early breakfast session runs from 8am to 9am, lunch occupies noon to 1pm, and the late session runs from 3pm to 4pm.

Part-time and full-time places are offered. 30 funded hours are also delivered through five full days, subject to eligibility and the setting's booking arrangements. Session combinations matter here: the opening window alone does not describe the hours a family has booked.

The admissions process uses a waiting list, with an application asking for preferred days and a start date. Priority criteria include looked-after children, specified additional needs, children receiving certain local-authority support, siblings and local families. A full-time request may receive preference over a part-time request depending on work commitments and occupancy.

Requests to alter sessions go by email; acceptance is not guaranteed, and agreed places are confirmed by email. Changes to funded sessions take effect at the beginning of the following term rather than during the current one. Reducing or ending childcare requires four weeks' written notice, and booked sessions remain chargeable during illness or holidays.

Getting There

The address is 48 Blackboy Lane, Fishbourne, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 8BE. Admissions and waiting-list enquiries use supervisor@fishbournepreschool.org.uk; fee queries have a separate finance contact.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible families can use 15 universal funded hours or up to 30 hours of Working Family Funding, delivered during term time. A funding code is required for the working-family entitlement, and a parent declaration must be completed for funded places; additional private hours are payable.

Funded education is separate from the optional contribution for snacks, breakfast, non-food consumables, outings and other resources. Nappies, wipes, sun cream and toothpaste are among the consumables covered; families can opt out and supply their own items. Packed lunch comes from home. The fees and contribution terms explain the structure, and current prices should form part of the nursery's written quotation.

• Starting age. The admissions policy refers both to children from two years and to acceptance from two years six months to four years. Ask which starting-age rule applies to your child before arranging a start date.
• Term-time planning. The offer covers 38 weeks, with holidays and staff-training closures. Families needing childcare through school holidays will need a separate arrangement for those periods.
• Teaching practice. In January 2022, adults sometimes interrupted children's concentration with excessive questioning, and individual staff development needed more precise direction. During a show-around, ask how staff protect sustained play and receive tailored feedback now.
• Funded bookings and extras. The optional contribution covers both food items and non-food supplies, while funded-session changes wait until the next term. Discuss your intended pattern and any opt-out arrangements together so that the booking and supplies are clear from the start.

Fishbourne suits families seeking either shorter morning or afternoon attendance, or a fuller term-time pattern built around additional sessions. Its strongest practical attractions are the connected indoor and outdoor spaces, the playing-field setting and a key-person system with tangible ways for parents to contribute.

For a child needing additional support, individual plans, coordinator roles and adaptable spaces provide useful mechanisms to discuss. The January 2022 judgement offers a positive historical assessment, tempered by specific recommendations about questioning and staff development. The decisive choices for families are the starting-age rule, the term-time calendar and the combination of sessions they actually need.